What is bad?

[Jamie (K)]

I have noticed something about some German immigrants I give lessons to.

If there is a difference between something in the US and something in Germany, their immediate assumption seems to be that the American variation is "unhealthy". Not just different, but almost always "unhealthy".

If Fanta is a different color orange in the US than in Germany, then the American Fanta must be "unhealthy", even though both versions contain artificial coloring, and even though Fanta is never healthy anywhere!

Some German families run around the house naked, and everybody of all ages in the family gets to see all the other people in their birthday suits. "It's natural!" (If it's so natural, then why do you have to talk about it?) Most American families are more private, and except for very small children, everybody runs around dressed. These "natural" Germans are very disturbed by this type of privacy, and they insist it's "unhealthy". I frankly grew up in that type of American household, and it wasn't unhealthy. Our parents never taught us that there was anything dirty about the human body, but we were taught to run around dressed anyway.

I think many people from Central Europe have this annoying habit of pointing to everything and claiming it's "unhealthy". The Czech equivalent is to call anything "unhealthy" if it was produced in their own country or does not contain alcohol.

[Jan]